Four pastry chefs will play three rounds in this sweet cookoff - using all of their skills, inspiration, and creativity, they'll have to turn ingredients not just into delicious desserts, but magical edible art. Whoever passes Ron Ben Israel's tests of genius will earn $10,000 and the title of... Sweet Genius.

Today's four glace gladiators...

Brian DeMuro pastry chef & MMA fighter

Trevor Burroughs project manager at a law firm

Jackie Rothong Drexel, MO pastry caterer, Sweet J's Creations

Carlo Figarella Washington, DC pastry instructor

There are three rounds: frozen, baked, and chocolate. Each one will have mandatory ingredients and one inspiration. These must be incorporated in order to be judge.

Round 1: FROZEN (40 minutes). Your first dish must have hardboiled eggs. Ray yolks give ice creams and custards their creamy flavor, but hardboiled eggs have lost their ability to be emulsified. And the inspiration... an oyster with a pearl inside. Pearls symbolize purity, innocence, and perfection.

Brian: Vanilla Ice Cream in a Puff Pastry
Trevor: Passion Fruit Semifreddo in Puff Pastry
Jackie: Strawberry Ice Cream with Egg Yolk Cream
Carlo: Orange Thyme Granita with Egg Yolk Pearl

The question of the moment.. what can you do with a hardboiled egg? Brian wants to candy it. Trevor... wants to do something a little creative. Yeah about that...  Chef Ron requires that your first dessert must also have.. Dragon fruit. Akin to the melon, its high water content can result in grainy consistency.

Carlo uses the dragon fruit in his orange sauce. Brian poaches it with raspberry. Trevor... panics, then adds it to his mascarpone mixture. (C-NOTE: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!). Jackie uses the shell of the dragon fruit as her shell.

Jackie's dish is a bit messy, but the tropical flavor comes across with the strawberry and peppercorn. Yet, the hardboiled egg is the least pronounced. Trevor has intense passion fruit flavor. The puff serves as a contrast to the cream... but the passion fruit is not sweet enough. Carlo has an excellent interpretation... but his granita melted, as Ron calls it.. unacceptable. Brian's egg yolk was executed well, but the dish itself is not ingenious enough.

Someone's just made their first... AND last dessert in the Sweet Genius clock tower... That person... is TREVOR.

Round 2: BAKED (50 minutes). Next on the conveyor belt... beets, a high-sugar root vegetable with a high sweet flavoring. The inspiration... sparklers.

Jackie: Beet Cupcake with Goat Cheese Frosting
Carlo: Beet Tart with Mascarpone Filling
Brian: Sour Cream Poundcake with Beet Buttercream

Chef Ron has another surprise.... mayonnaise. It can make wonderful cakes... or break creamy frostings.

Jackie decides to switch gears and stuff her goat cheese in the cupcake and make a beet-mayo frosting.

... but Ron's not done yet... here comes purple glutinous corn. If cooked too long, it turns soft and spongy.

Carlo incorporates cotton candy into his dish for "sparklers". Brian decides to go for more of a flavor sparkle.

Carlo's tart is savory... perhaps a little too much to be called a dessert. But the cotton candy ties it together. He didn't transform the mayo into anything else. Brian's cake is moist... intriguing... but visually unappealing. Jackie perfectly captures the sparklers inspiration.  The texture is uneven, and the frosting is heavy.

One chef did not deliver genius. That chef was... CARLO. He didn't repurpose the ingredients. There was no transformation.

Round 3: CHOCOLATE (60 minutes). Other than chocolate, you must also have... black garlic, a sweet and syrupy taste. Inspiration must come from... a cat.

We can has one hour now?

Jackie: Croquembouche with Chocolate Pastry Cream
Brian: Chocolate Black Garlic with Mascarpone Mousse

Cats like balls and thread. Jackie has balls. Brian has sugar threads. Ron has a button that he likes to push. As a result... gummy fish made of corn syrup of carnauba wax. Jackie uses that as a base for another cream.

... but surprise! Another ingredient... vanilla wafers. Jackie... doesn't know where to put them. Brian knows exactly what to do, brulee it. Jackie... in a last-ditch effort... throws the wafers into her caramel.

Brian's inspiration... cat food commercials. The dessert is intense... deep... but the gummy fish takes a long time to chew. And there is no attempt to decorate it. He gave up on a ball of spun sugar yarn. Jackie's dark chocolate mousse melts on his palate, while the gummy fish hits him. The caramel hardens.. and so do the wafers. That is a fatal mistake.

... but is it a $10,000 mistake? Who is today's Sweet Genius?

Today's Sweet Genius is... BRIAN! He puts the haters to bed with his interpretations and now has cash money to back up his reputation.

Let this be a lesson. Sometimes being a sweet genius is about doing what you can with what you have where you are...  Until next time...

To see extras from this episode, visit the official website at foodnetwork.com/sweetgenius.